


Blood Oath

by Kaggath



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Blood, F/M, Facial Trauma, Medical Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-08-22 12:03:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16597538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaggath/pseuds/Kaggath
Summary: Set directly after the battle on Alderaan. While Malgus was away to war, Eleena was left behind with the order to continue her training.





	1. The Oath

“The work you do must be very good,” the woman more sneered than mused. She had tightly pulled back hair and a tight face. Her footsteps were sharp, clipped, a sound like shattering crystals. Breaching the threshold of the hospital Eleena placed the sterile, astringent smell that clung to her like a disease for what it was. 

The woman came “by order of Darth Malgus,” but offered Eleena nothing. Her amber eyes were of the natural variety, with no obvious signs of Dark Side corruption. Her dangerously petite figure could betray hidden strength, but Eleena doubted this stranger would go through the troubles of fabricating and falsifying the papers and codes it took to get this far just to get to _her._

Clamping down her fears, Eleena only nodded a reply as the doors to the turbo lift blinked shut like a shriek-hawk’s eye. She hated strangers. Especially Imperial strangers, though that’s all there ever seemed to be around her. Veradun had been away for so long, and was able to say so little, but he had to be alive to give an order of summons…

Right? 

Possibilities ran wild behind her eyes, her face tightened with concern and anxiety, but the woman who led her remained silent until the final hall. 

“If we try to give him any more sedatives—and he finally gets tired of purging them from his system—it will probably kill him.”

Closed doors swept past Eleena as her blood ran cold. Sedatives?

“It’s not uncommon for Sith to be…problematic patients. Imagine trying to dress wounds on a rancor, except it can throw you across the room without touching you and it can flush out tranquilizers faster than you can pump them into it.” 

Eleena’s heart thrashed against her ribs. It felt like her clothes would burst into flames. There was a cold disinterest in the woman’s words and her eyes were sharp and hateful as she quickly inspected Eleena top to bottom.

“When these brutes get this way we generally give them whatever it is they’re squalling for. Quicker to appease them and get to work, you see. Darth Malgus, however, is completely incomprehensible. Perhaps in part because of his wounds, yes, but all we can understand is his shouting your name.”

It was impossible at this point to mask her fear. From the end of the hall Eleena could hear muffled bellowing. With wide eyes Eleena inspected the room across the one where the sounds of condensed carnage were barely contained. The door had been removed, damaged beyond function with massive dents.

“He broke the first room we put him in. Can’t say I envy you,” the woman’s sour voice rose above another wave of sound Eleena could almost identify as Veradun’s voice. “I’d offer you ear plugs, but. Well. Just get in there and get him to cooperate. He’s too valuable for us to risk other methods.”

As soon as she cracked the door open, a middle aged man in a white…ish coat squirmed out, running down the hall and shouting his resignations. Eleena’s guide clucked a disappointed _tsk._

“The last one at least had the decency to request to be transferred to pediatrics. Oh, well. The Empire always needs someone to scrub the refresher.”

In one quick motion the woman pushed Eleena into the room and closed the door, activating a locking mechanism that undoubtedly had trapped the previous doctor in with Veradun.

The room was too much to take in at once. Medical instruments littered the floor, and bloodied gauze filled the receptacle. The sterile lights revealed in detail how ravaged the room was, and in its center lay Veradun. The room boiled over with the sound of his ragged breathing as Eleena rushed to his side.

His eyes were unfocused, swimming under pain and anesthesia and confusion. Bandages covered most of the left side of his face. A scowl ripped into his lips, bloodied and torn. Eleena’s hands hovered millimeters above his carved flesh, not wanting to add to his pain but at a loss with how to comfort him. 

What could have done this to him?

“Veradun…” Eleena whispered. Coughing, Veradun’s gaze meandered to hers, recognition adding a shade of focus to his golden eyes. 

This is how he came home? What, then, was all her work for? In their time apart she continued her training, honed her skills, grew stronger and faster and more precise…for what? Feeling her lip trembling, Eleena bit down on it as tears streamed hot down her face.

Eleena’s flesh stung, her tooth slicing the soft skin. A restraint dangled from Veradun’s wrist as he reached a hand up to cradle her cheek. Leaning into his touch, Eleena slipped her slender fingers between his. She could feel her blood welling, ready to spill until Veradun swiped his thumb across her lip.

“Eleena,” he gurgled. If any of his strength left him, Eleena couldn’t tell as he pulled her in to a kiss. His bandages scratched against her and as their blood mingled Eleena made a pact to never leave his side again. She wasn’t weak or helpless as she once had been. She would stand by him tirelessly, the eyes and blasters and loyalty and heart no other being could be to him. 

Veradun pulled away, but before Eleena could speak her oath his eyes lost their focus once more and his head fell onto the medical bed with a solid thud. The tone of his equipment fell, and Eleena heard the door unlock as she wiped their blood from her mouth.


	2. The Pact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The followup to Blood Oath, in which Eleena bares her teeth.

Pouring durasteel into her spine, Eleena set her jaw. Raised her chin. She pulled her shoulders back and felt the muscles in her chest shifting. She felt the strength in her arms, the solidness of her legs as her stance widened in bracing. 

Eleena felt the weight of her blasters, and the ache of training. She felt fear trying to pull her into herself, to curl her shoulders and remind her of how powerless she was, compared to the titans around her. She was afraid, yes, but she refused to let that be her life.

Standing by his bedside, Eleena pulled the words from her throat.

“This is how you return?” 

Veradun had been away to war. Eleena had little to no contact with him during his siege on Alderaan, and only learned of his injuries from battle through a summons to the hospital, as ordered by a drug-addled brain delirious with pain. The once clouded eyes fell on her, sharp again as a vibroblade. Swallowing hard, she poured herself into the silence.

“What is to happen to me, should you fall? Am I to be sold away as your assets are redistributed?” The bitter words clung inside Eleena’s mouth. She would spit them out. 

“Eleena…” Veradun said with effort. His tone came obfuscated through the fearsome machine he now wore. His breath labored under the respirator as he struggled to pull himself from the bed.

“I will not!” she forced the words from her lips, stamping her foot down. Veradun stood, towering over her, and Eleena glared into his darkened eyes looking down at her. 

“What is all this training for if I cannot be by your side? I will not stay behind any longer, waiting to know if you live! Wherever you go, I will go. I would rather die by your side than to see a day without you in it.” 

Panting, Eleena’s fists balled at her sides. Veradun’s eyes searched hers, and faster than she could react, his hand cradled the base of her skull. 

Pulling her body close to his, Veradun pressed his forehead to hers. Her hands found his chest, felt his heart pounding beneath muscle and bone and scar tissue latticed across his skin as countless as the stars. She did not break her gaze. She would hold her ground, no matter what.

“You are fierce,” his mangled voice crashed down, and in the back of her mind Eleena realized she wouldn’t feel his breath on her skin again as his respirator created yet another barrier between them. Speaking between soft gasps, Veradun continued.

“Once I receive…the full report from Hale…” Veradun’s brow furrowed further as he strained to speak, still clutching Eleena close. “You will begin…examination. Should you pass…you will join me…on the front lines.”

A coughing fit wracked his body and Veradun’s grip stung her flesh. Concern and relief mixed together, swirling together like smoke. With the taste of her blood oath fresh in her memory, Eleena sealed her pact. She would not fail.


End file.
